Monday, January 31, 2011

Of all the things....

Have you ever wished for a magic potion for Happiness? One which can save you from this eternal roller coaster of emotions? I have been thinking about it lately and realize that it’s not a bad thing to ask for at all if God makes an appearance to me one day. But then again who will remember to ask for a nonexistent potion when there are countless other tangible things you would rather ask Him? Anyway back to the issue at hand. I am sure we have at some point or phase in life asked around for a prescription to happiness in life. Apparently no one has got one or it would have made someone ridiculously rich with a patent.

I would not be completely wrong if I said that the extent of our happiness is often a function of success. The more success we get in life the happier we are or so we think. So what does it take to succeed? Somehow the adage ‘Where there is a will there is a way’ doesn’t always make sense to me. I would say the equation of success is not often a simple expression of will and hard work. There is a hidden variable called Emotions which decides whether the equation equals Success or not. We all agree that when there is a conflict between the heart and mind, it is seldom that mind behaves rationally. I speak for matters other than life and death because then your mind generally puts you in an auto mode giving you only necessary instructions to get through the crisis. But chasing your dream of getting into that top business school, making it big in the career etc. are some things in life though not critical but very taxing because of the sheer effort they demand from us and here I would say we bring them into our lives by choice. Everyone tells us the ways to success but what they don’t tell you is how long the road is and how tedious the journey is. Sometimes on this road you don’t even see a sign saying Way to success until your feet are blistered and you are completely sapped out ready to take the first cab out.

At the end of the day no matter how many successful people we idolize and no matter how many adages we memorize about winning, nothing prepares us for the real test. We all have a prompt home delivery of a personalized question paper called life everyday to solve with only free advices and our own past experiences to count on. Not very promising stationery to take on the paper I would say.
Surprisingly enough we often link our precious happiness to the outcome of this test. Wouldn’t it be great if happiness was an independent function? Something which we could get in small quantities at intervals to keep us going. That brings us back to the magic potion we wished for in the beginning. With all the brainstorming I have been doing these days to cope up with my journey to have a career in the United States for over a year now, I have discovered the two most important things you ought to have in your life in order for you to be even sane to enjoy the success when it finally comes your way.

The first ingredient to our magic potion is Hope. Hope, to hold your hand when you are down and out and to give you a new reason to wake up the next morning.
The second and the most important one is Patience. Patience to not give up when things go haywire. Patience to still love the destination when all the paths leading to it are under maintenance. Easier said than done right?

I would say if we can trick ourselves in to believing that we are actually happy, a little attitude adjustment is a very small price to pay for this magic potion. It would not hurt to try something which can help us bounce back after a setback and not to look for that cab when the destination is just around the corner. On this long road to success and hence happiness, let patience make us strong to wait for tomorrow and let hope make tomorrow worth waking up for. Till then let’s just say When the going gets tough, the patient and the hopeful get going…

4 comments:

  1. hey avs..gud work..resonated with my mind and heart.it was very warm and thoughtful

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  2. Good introspection. Good going. At the end don't you think that you have got the potion which is nothing but the mixture of Hope and Patience. The proportion varies from individual to other but the ingredients are same. All the luck for you. Dad

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  3. Thanks dad....ya at the end I came up with my version of the potion with two basic ingredients...the enhancements? swaad ke anusaar :-)

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